Foam of memory surged through the fractured gap.
Such was the process of defying time: advancing from future through past. How long had I been swept backward before reaching this place?
To my senses, it would have felt very long.
Had there been no signpost.
“……Did you find your answer?”
The foam suddenly receded, and my sight returned.
When my floating mind awoke, an empty world greeted me. In darkness without even a source of light, only the forms of objects remained clear.
Such a contradictory, mysterious world.
When I first saw it, I had merely felt bewildered. But thinking that even this would be the last time spread a bitter taste through my mouth. Had I grown attached over that brief year?
Yes, above all, to the man standing there waiting for me.
It felt like looking into a mirror. The man shaped exactly like me stood before the only fork in this vast space, his gaze still utterly dry.
The moment I saw the familiar scene, I knew instinctively.
This was farewell.
In the truest sense.
“Had I not found it, I could not have reached this place.”
“I see.”
The man spoke and let his indifferent gaze drift toward the fork before us.
“Then it is time to part.”